drew03cmc

LRF, in that segment of the Current, the odds are probably better that you will stick more largemouth than brownies. With that said, try it out, you never know!

I was right. I got lucky Tim. Nice report on the Mulies. To see one of them up close would be awesome, but in eastern Kansas, it just cannot be done.

I edited my above post to be more correct, but OB, you and I agree on something.

Really? You are this butthurt over a non-native species in Missouri waters? If this is the general tone of your input, you can be excused. 9 posts total as of now and you have spent 8 of them bit*hing about someone else's pictures. Don't you have anything better to do with yourself on the internet? Go look at some pron or something, maybe it will help you relieve some stress that appears to be pent up inside of the gigantic ego you seem to have amassed throughout your life. Legal acts, are legal acts. You will not see anyone arrested for taking a picture of a fish. Snagging is frowned upon? How do you catch spoonbill then so I can learn from the "master". You want to enact a yardage penalty for laying a fish on the darn rocks? I guess if everyone was the gentleman fly fisherman that you seem to fancy yourself as being, the world would be a better place, for man and for fish. Maybe you should take your boy "WaderFarts" with you and teach him how real Ozarks fishermen handle themselves. I am sure he will come back enlightened with information and have an image emblazoned on the soft tissue of his ocular nerve. Jesus, Laker has caught more trophy trout, with photographic evidence, than you could dream of catching. Chief is one of the best smallmouth fishermen I have ever met, and you, want to come on here to pick a fight and start some schite with everyone. Get over yourself and contribute something worthwhile to a conversation or go the hell away. Edit: Perhaps I did take a few liberties with some things. My bad. Just tired of the same old holier than thou act with regards to trout and the handling of such. I will recant my statements regarding WaderFarts, even as much as I disagree with his sentiment here. Jason, you took that as an insult, which it wasn't. It was rather an offhanded way of acknowledging your status as a fly fisherman, and how you like to see the sport. It isn't a bad thing and the world could use some more ecologically concerned sportsmen. Believe it or not, you are not a person I ever had beef with, why start now? I just don't understand how people can use a cotton net and then bitch about laying a fish on the rocks. The cotton absorbs much more slime than a hard rock does, correct?

I know for a fact there is a breeding pair in Linn County, KS and probably Bates County, MO. We, at work at KCPL at La Cygne, KS last summer saw a VERY large cat, and yes, I know what I am looking at, wandering the hills there. A day later, we saw a baby. Probably a YOY, and little less than half the size of the one the previous day. We were no more than about two miles into Kansas. The fuel foreman at Iatan Power Plant in Weston, MO has pictures of two cougars swimming in the flood waters just outside the cooling towers. You can see the length of the tail and the cat is by far larger than a bobcat, which also roam these parts. I have seen bobcats out on jobsites as well, right along tree lines and, to be honest, I have no idea how the hell people confuse the two. I guess the KDWP and the MDC are feeding the same lines of crap regarding these magnificent cats. They are present, and they are going to be here for awhile. Enjoy them.

I remember the fight that big guy gave me. I never thought I would land that.

$120 for a decent pair of boots is not a small expenditure. I could buy a new (to me) reel and some lures to toss at the bass for the same price.

Wouldn't you think that if it was going to infect the 11Pt or NFOW that it would already be there considering their proximity to the Norfork Tailwater?

For under $100, your options are kind of limited for a current lightweight reel, but you can check ebay. Look at older Pflueger 1492 reels, specifically, those made in the USA. They will balance your TFO rod, look classic on a rod with classic action and spools are cheap enough on the 'bay that you can carry different liens, tapers, etc. They generally run from $25-30 for a rough, fishable example of a 1492DA to well over $100 for a mint, sculpted pillar, never fished NIB example. They have a simple click drag and will hold a WF3F and 50-75 yards of 20# backing which is enough for any 3wt use.

Spencer is one of the foremost authorities on this, however, some details are very sketchy. I would like to see the information on the origin of the eggs used to stock Crane in the beginning, but you know that will not happen. I also believe these are hybrids, which doesn't mean they had to evolve into wild fish, rather, they found suitable accomodations in Crane Creek and took up residence making the creek their own. I will continue chasing them regardless.

I would like to see it then.

Chief, nice fish. I caught a 3" rainbow out of Bennett nine years ago believe it or not, which would have had to be spawned that winter.

Orvis Clearwater is a great value reel, or if you want something else, the Battenkill Disc, maybe the Access or the Battenkill Bar Stock or even the Hydros (I am getting a Hydros I for a Superfine Tippet). For a 4wt reel, the Clearwater II weighs 4.2oz and should be available at an Orvis shop for $50. The Access II weighs 4.45oz and is $139, the Battenkill Bar Stock II weighs 3.5oz and is $129 the Hydros II is a 4.3oz reel that costs $209. While people hate that Orvis' reels are made in Korea now, there is no denying that they are nice reels for the money. You could also get a Lamson Konic 1.5 for $120 for that size rod. I guess it is entirely up to you though what you are comfortable spending.

Wow, what a profusion of new information we have here. The presence of a hatchery on Spring Creek might be our scapegoat for the mixing of genetics on these fish. Now, that is not to say that at some point McCloud River fingerlings and eggs were not planted in Crane via wagon since the dates and railroad tracks don't work. Since then, there have been stockings through at least 1919, and this, for me, does not take the shine off of Crane as those fish are some of the most challenging that I have ever caught. They are gorgeous fish in a gorgeous creek and that is what makes me drive down there to fish for them. The fairy tale about these being pure strain McClouds has no bearing on it, even though it is a nice fairy tale to listen to.

That fish is a nice fish, but was obviously raised in captivity. It's been awhile since I've seen a fish like that from lower down in the Current.

In certain portions of the McCloud River, you are right, however, there are isolated stretches of the McCloud which are virtually inaccessible to non-native fish due to falls and what not.

OB, Phil, Chief and others, I will state this again, even if they aren't pure McClouds, which we are in agreement that they are most likely not, they are a beautiful fish who live in a beautiful place and are fun to catch. We are well aware that MDC's hatchery rainbows can spawn successfully in Missouri spring creeks, and none of the other Blue Ribbon streams are touted as having one of the last populations of McClouds in the world, so that is why the strain of rainbow would be interesting to know. It is not important, but I am still curious about it.

That is a nice fish, but I am even more curious about the genetics of these fish.

Plastic worm? He couldn't catch them in a sporting manner?

The reel itself is heavy. The drag should be pretty good, but when I picked one up in a shop, the weight turned me off.

That is just your normal hatchery rainbow. It is probably the Missouri strain, engineered in the hatchery system for resistance to disease and their spawning schedule. Nice fish.

Bassmaster 50 must haves has to include $50 to pay that loud mouth Roland Martin for gas, right?

I found some interesting information, most of which is conjecture and not based on science whatsoever. Rather, I am basing this on my eyes and images of trout. In examining photos of redbands taken from the isolated portions of the McCloud River, where cross breeding and hybridization are highly unlikely and comparing them to the pictures of adult and juvenile trout of Crane Creek and there are few similarities. Looking at all of the requisite characteristics for a Great Basin redband (McCloud River is included in the GB subspecies of redband), I see some similarities, however, a perfect match eludes me. I have looked at all of the fish pictures from Crane on OAF. Now, the primary identifiers of the McCloud River redband trout are white tipped fins, including the pelvic, anal and dorsal, yellow-green body with pink to brick-red stripe, forked and spotted caudal fin which is more deeply forked than a hatchery or coastal rainbow and they are heavily spotted above and below the lateral line. Most of what I saw are rainbows from Crane that are heavily spotted above the lateral line and sparsely spotted below the lateral line, if at all. It is possible that the lack of spotting lower on the body is due to a variation in spot patterning, but the typical McCloud River Redband has spots heavily over and under the lateral line. I compared from all times of year, spawn, summer, winter, etc. To be honest, the hatchery reared rainbows on this site http://www.nativetroutflyfishing.com/troutandsalmon.htm much more closely resemble the trout that you find in Crane for the most part with the lack of lower body spotting. Some do possess spotting below the lateral line and I am sure the fish in Crane do as well. I don't see too much in the way of redband genetics in the trout in Crane, but there likely is some due to the origin of the trout that initially inhabited the creek. Now, if what I have read on here is true where the only things swimming in Crane were crawfish and tadpoles at at least one time in history, it is likely that the trout in Crane have no redband genetics. If there is redband blood, it has been minimized through the years and bred out with Missouri-Arlee blood, but that is just speculation. I would love to see the results of a genetic study with a regular, hatchery fish from NFH, a McCloud from the isolated regions of the McCloud River and a Crane Creek rainbow to see where we stand on the claim of a pure population. I might be overthinking this, but think that a genetic test would be a good thing to know what actually have on hand here.

Please do Phil! I would appreciate it.

Chief, that is a great description of this day!